U3A EAST LONDON NEWSLETTER
The University of the Third Age
Newsletter no 87 April and May /2018
Over the past two months we have had two great speakers at our General Meetings, - firstly, Dr Stan Weakley, taking us through Africa as far as Ethiopia. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but the feedback I got was that it was greatly enjoyed.
Secondly, our own Carol Keep kept us spellbound as she re-introduced us to Shakespeare. Riveting stuff! Surely many of us were letting our teenage concentration (what little there was of it) go out the window when “Willem Wikkelspies” was on the menu at school! Well, Carol made his work come alive. If only we could have had an English teacher like her...
For those who missed her talk, did you know that Shakespeare wrote his sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely, and more temperate” not to his lady love, but to a man, possibly his patron? Carol also brought our attention to the fact that Shakespeare coined eighteen new English words (for that time), including the word “zany” !?!
Well done, Carol! You had us wanting to head for the nearest library to take out one or other of Shakespeare’s works. I’m not making this up. These comments were uttered to me by fellow U3A members, and I am in full agreement.
Our chairlady, Sandra Sterling, is going to be out of action for a while from 10 April, as she is going in to St Dom’s to have her left hip replaced. We pray that all will go well, Sandra, and that you will have a good recovery.
I should like to express my thanks to our U3A Whizz-Kid, John Stoddard, for all the help he gives to us in many different ways. He is a man of many talents, which he has unstintingly shared with all of us. Thank you so much, John. May God bless you abundantly!
John will be handing over the financial side of U3A to Sheila Godfrey from June 2018 onwards, and we are very grateful to Sheila for being willing to step into John’s shoes. Granted, - they are big shoes, but I believe that she is more than capable of filling them. Besides, dynamite comes in small packages!
On 15 March we were fortunate to have Les Holbrook, the Director of the Border-Kei Chamber of Business, update us on what has been happening in East London. Those of you who missed his talk, make sure that you don’t miss him the next time he comes. Amazingly, he does the work he does without remuneration. All of us could well imitate his example of seeing what can be done to improve matters, and make East London a place that we can be proud of, and where businesses will want to invest, and where people will want to come and live.
MEMBERSHIP: Margaret Baxter 043-721-2130 Our membership now stands at 187 paid-up members.
Birthdays: A very happy birthday to each one of you!
April: 7 Donese Jenkins and Jennifer Galloway; 11 Avriel Murdock; 14 Ruth Strunck;
16; Thelma Jameson; 18 David Salzwedel; 19 Dave Donkin; 23 Pam Hobson;
30 Rose Thompson
May: 3 Alvan Mandy; 6 Cyril de Keyzer; 7 Barry Chapman; 8 Sheila Sanderson; 9 Myra Giese;
10 Sheila Slinger; 11 Sheila Killian; 16 Jenny Swift; 17 Dennis Ansell and AnnaliesBoeke;
18 Estelle King; 25 Sue Matthis; 26 Mary Carter; 28 Laura Maynard; 29 Val Viljoen
COURSE NEWS: Jenny Alcock 043-738-5090 and Barry Chapman 043-735-2471
Nancy Tietz reports that although her Creative Writing Group has been battling to get their collection of short stories ready for publication, one of their members has just had her book published. Her name is Lori-Ann Preston, and the title of her book is “Thabo the Space Dude”. It is set in East London, with the Mars Embassy situated at Nahoon Beach! The Group wish to congratulate her, and say that they envy her, wishing that they too could be in her space.
Pam Hobson will be away in May, so the Comuter Course on Monday, 9 April, will be led by John Stoddard. The Beginner and Advanced Groups will be combined and start at 9.30am in the Blue Room at The Valley.
The J.S.E meeting on Thursday, 5 April will take place in the Indaba Room at The Valley. There will be a short talk on the Land Issue in SA by one of our U3A members who is a retired farmer. An interview with a CEO of one of the listed agricultural companies will be shown, so that wecan look at the implications for SA and whether we can effect a win/win solution to the land issue. The latest business news will also be aired.
The Drama Group play-read the comedy “Sunday Costs Five Pesos” last month, which was enjoyed by all. Nita reports that the Group have much fun together, and encourage others to join them.
Carol Keep’s Music Appreciation Group began the year with a dvd of the 2018 Vienna New Year Concert, featuring music mainly by Strauss. She thanks John Stoddard who kindly assisted with the technological aspects. The next meeting will feature music by Italian composers. All are welcome to join.
The February Armchair Travel session was taken by Nancy Tietz. She had exceptional slides of “The Land of the Rising Sun”. The March meeting featured John Thomson taking us to Papua New Guuinea. Parts of the country are so remote and inaccessible that they have not been explored, and the knowledge of there being head hunters in those parts is a deterrent. There will be no Armchair Travel in April, as the date falls on Easter Monday. On 7 May, Jenny Swift will be giving a talk entitled “Last Passenger Ship to St Helena”, and on 4 June, Marion Victor will be speaking on “Melbourne – the Place to Be”.
The Film Club will be viewing “Victoria and Abdul” on 4 April. This is a film about Queen Victoria and her Indian footman, who gives her a new outlook on life during his time of service to the Queen.
FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS:
12 April General Meeting 9.30am Mary Wrench: Finance
19 April Current Affairs 10 am Rolene Wagner, CEO of Frere Hospital
10 May General Meeting 9.30am Eddie Foster: Animal Behaviour
17 May Current Affairs 10 am Hamish Scott: The EL Grain Elevator
Sandra (Sterling) mentioned a word to me the other day, in connection with Hamish Scott and his talk on 17 May. The word is “gantry”. I must confess that it was a new one to me, so I looked it up in my dictionary. There are four meanings for this word. I would imagine that number 1 being “ a bridge-like frame over which a travelling crane moves” would be the definition in question, but don’t take my word for it. Let’s do our homework in preparation for Hamish, so that he doesn’t find us red-faced!
And finally,
Wisdom is the reward you get
for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.
Doug Larsen
Sincerely
Marion Victor and the Newsletter Team.